Educators
Tips on Managing Your Peer Tutors
There are several issues to contend with when managing peer tutors and
high school students. The first one is behavior. When working with high
school students, there is a fine line between typical teenage behavior
and disrespect. When dealing with typical teenage behavior, sometimes
the best way is to ignore it as long as it does not go too far. To give
attention would be to reinforce the behavior to occur again. Disrespect
to teachers, para-educators, student teachers, guests, and to students
with disabilities should not be tolerated. This disrespect can be in the
forms of verbal communication, physical behaviors, and attitudes towards
others. The methods that these behaviors will be dealt with need to be
determined and explained at the beginning of the class. Students with
and without disabilities should be held responsible for their behaviors
and should be dealt with as soon as the behavior occurs.
Other behavior issues will come up, and the consequences should be laid
out ahead of time. Guidelines for behaviors in the community and regular
education classes need to be given to the peer tutors along with the consequences
that will occur. Remember that the regular education teacher should be
the teacher to deal with most behaviors that occur while in the class.
A copy of the guidelines and consequences should also be given to the
administration and the regular education teacher.
There may be an item when the behavior of a peer tutor is too much for
the special education classroom and students. If the behavior is having
a negative influence on the students with disabilities, then actions need
to be taken. This time should come only after investigating other ways
to stop the behavior. If the special education teacher feels that a peer
tutor needs to be removed from the class, the teacher needs to set up
a time to discuss the issue with administration and guidance counselors
as to the appropriate steps. When going to the meeting, make sure to take
documentation as the occurrences of the behavior and the actions taken.
The administration and the guidance counselor will then determine other
classes for the peer tutor to take. Please note that as a special education
teacher, you have been taught to accept people’s differences and
behavior management. Do not take the action of dismissing a peer tutor
lightly. This should not be a regular occurrence. If it is, then talk
with the administration and the guidance counselors as to what may be
going on in the classroom.
A second issue that a special education teacher will have to deal with
when having peer tutors, which is not always an issue with students with
severe disabilities is collecting assignments. Remember that part of teaching
high school is preparing the students for life in the real world after
high school. When a due date is given for an assignment, then make sure
that the assignment is collected on that day unless unforeseen circumstances
occur. When preparing the syllabus, make sure that the guidelines for
turning in the assignments is written out. What will the penalties be
for late, partial, or missing assignments? What are the expectations if
the peer tutor is not at school on the day that the assignment is due?
Managing your classroom with too few or too many peer tutors can be a
challenge. In the beginning most peer tutor programs suffer from a shortage
of peer tutors. Before you schedule your students in classes that will
require them to have a peer tutor, make sure that you have enough peer
tutors. The special education teacher should be able to have a rough estimate
on the number of peer tutors she/he will have each class about a week
before school starts. From this number, finalize the student’s with
disabilities schedules. The first priority should be to schedule peer
tutors into regular education classes. If a peer tutoring program has
too few numbers of students enrolled, then the teacher and counselors
will need to look at ways to actively recruit. Often student’s schedules
change during the first 2 weeks of school.
Make sure that the guidance counselors are aware of when you need more
peer tutors. Sometimes peer tutoring classes, as other classes often are,
can be overbooked with too many students. If this occurs, see if some
of the other special education classes can use a peer tutor. If the class
has too many peer tutors, or on days when a lot of students with disabilities
are out, make sure that there are assignments for the peer tutors to work
on. Several teachers have posted lists of the things that the peer tutors
can opt to work on when there is free time.
Another issue that teachers of peer tutoring programs may run across is
gifted service plans. Many school districts have begun to develop gifted
service plans for students who are identified as gifted. Now that the
special education teacher is working with students without disabilities,
he/she can easily find that a gifted service plan will have to be developed
and followed by her/him -self.
Many special education teachers have practicum and student teachers come
into their classrooms from local universities. Most of these university
students have not had any experience working with high school students,
besides that fact of the age difference being so small. If a high school
senior is 18 years old and the practicum student is only 20 or 21, then
there is a good chance for some rough times to occur. The special education
teacher needs to have a talk with the practicum and student teachers about
what is appropriate conversation and behaviors and what is not. They should
not talk about their personal and social lives with the peer tutors. At
the same time, during the peer tutor training, the special education teacher
needs to talk about appropriate behavior with the practicum and student
teachers to the peer tutors. The special education teacher needs to keep
close supervision on the practicum students and student teachers.
Peer tutors also need to understand that para-educators are to be treated
just as teachers. The peer tutors need to be told during the training
that all para-educators in the classroom will be treated just as the teachers
are treated. Para-educators need to know what the special education teacher
wants them to do if a peer tutor misbehaves. Is the para-educator is handle
the situation or should all behaviors be dealt with by the teacher only.
All of this needs to be decided on before the peer tutoring class begins.
Tips for Teachers
Setting Up a Peer Tutor Program